Tech Staff Want the Latest & Greatest - And You’re Not It

On 13 Oct, 2017 By BankOnIT

Demand for IT workers across every industry sector saw gains last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With high demand for skilled IT professionals, especially in the areas of IT leadership and cybersecurity, attracting qualified technical staff to the banking industry is especially challenging.

Banks are not thought of by tech people as providing the opportunity to work with the latest and greatest technology. And, the rich benefits offered by tech firms are not found in the banking industry.

The challenge of attracting and retaining technical staff was experienced by one multi-branch bank that had several locations across multiple states. Its main office was located in a rural town, and it was at this location that the three person IT staff was housed. The bank’s president said it was difficult to recruit qualified technical staff to this rural town. He was concerned because two of his three IT persons were nearing retirement age, and the third staff member was not going to be considered for promotion. As a result, the bank thought it would be a better idea to recruit technical staff to one of their offices located in a suburb of a large metropolitan city where there were lots of technical firms and plenty of tech labor. The president viewed this as an opportunity to gain an increased number of candidates.

However, the bank quickly discovered that not only were candidates difficult to recruit, but they were even more challenging to retain. The reason why is the technology at the bank was not changing fast enough to provide an interesting challenge to well qualified technical staff candidates, and the numerous tech firms in the area were able to not only offer a more challenging work environment but also better compensation and better benefits.

Technology has simply become too broad and far too complex of a discipline for one or a couple of “great” IT people. It takes a dedicated team of experienced, knowledgeable individuals that are supported with the resources they need to protect your bank from the risks you face while simultaneously time providing you the capabilities you need.

How confident are you that your technical staff has skills and resources they need to keep your bank secure?

To discover more about how BankOnIT helps protect your bank from risk you face, contact us at 800-498-8877, option 2, or solutions@bankonitusa.com